Overhaul of the goods and services tax (GST) structure, including possible changes in the tax slabs, may now be taken up only after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, given the number of states that are going to the polls in its run-up. "No major overhaul of tax rates is expected in GST until the end of next fiscal year. One major reason for this is that some members of the group of ministers (GoM) - mandated to look at rate rationalisation by the GST Council - are from poll-bound states. Later, this may lead to reconstitution of the panel," a senior government official told Business Standard. Besides, both the Centre and states are not in favour of frequent changes in the tax rates amid inflationary uncertainties; they believe any major change should be brought in after extensive deliberations, according to the official.
Initially, banners were placed during the annual Kaup Marigudi festival in Udupi district, stating that non-Hindu vendors and traders should not be allowed entry.
The tug-of-war between the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa continues with the latter deciding to advance the launch of his party by a day in view of the special session of the legislative assembly scheduled to be held at Belgaum.
In a renewed bid to get the party to reinstate him, former Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa has decided to move his members of Legislative Assembly to a resort on Monday.
The 61-year old leader will take oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka from Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday at 11 am.
K Siddaramaiah, who took over as the 22nd chief minister of Karnataka on Monday, is all set to face a stormy legislative assembly session. Among the several decisions that he took after being sworn-in was to reverse the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government's decision banning cow slaughter in the state.
Former BJP union Minister Taradevi Siddartha, former Kannada Paksha MP S B Sidnal and former Janata Parivar Karnataka Assembly Legislator Jayaprakash Hegde on Tuesday joined the Congress in the presence of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Mallikarjun Kharge. Speaking to newspersons, Kharge said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has approved their induction into the party.
Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attended the swearing in ceremony, while former AICC President Sonia Gandhi was absent. Chief Ministers of Congress ruled states Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and Sukhvinder Singh Sukku (Himachal Pradesh) and several top party leaders were also in attendance.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday met Congress parliamentary party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi at their residence in New Delhi.
With the Biju Janata Dal backing the National Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, the vote share of the ruling dispensation has now crossed 50 percent, virtually paving the way for her election as the first tribal President and the youngest too.
Ignoring the recommendation of the state unit to field Vijayendra for the June 3 biennial elections to seven seats of Karnataka Legislative Council, the party central leadership on Tuesday announced names of four candidates, hours before the deadline for filing of nominations ended.
Nagaraj reached Mumbai accompanied by Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa's personal assistant Santosh and BJP MLA R Ashok.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
Terming the registration of FIR against Home Minister R R Patil by Karnataka police as "wrong", Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said he would speak to his counterpart from the neighbouring state and request him to drop the charges.
Congress and RJD are single largest parties in Goa and Bihar respectively.
Facing fresh trouble after the Supreme Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into his alleged role in illegal mining, former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday held consultations with his loyalists on his political future.
Polling is underway to elect 119 members of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, with voters queuing up to exercise their franchise amid tight security on Thursday.
To the Karnataka strongman's shock, his staunchest followers did a U-turn and decided to stay back in the BJP, says Vicky Nanjappa
Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 assembly seats to form government in the Bharat Rashtra Samiti-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where the Bharatiya Janata Party wrested two states from the grand old party and retained one.
Siddaramaiah, who hails from the shepherd Kuruba caste, holds the record for presenting the highest number of Budgets in Karnataka -- 13 so far. He has often spoken about how he was mocked in 1994 before he presented his first Budget. 'Some people asked, "Can he count sheep?",' Siddaramaiah told a regional news channel.
K Siddaramaiah, who led the Congress to victory in the May 5 assembly elections in Karnataka, took oath as the state's 22nd chief minister on Monday.
Asserting he will abide by rules, the speaker said he will take a "just decision which may be of convenience to some and inconvenience to some."
In a startling repeat of the manoeuvres made by Bharatiya Janata Party members of Legislative Assembly in Karnataka to unseat the government of former Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda, over 40 Maharashtra Congress legislators raised a similar demand against Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday, saying he needed to go if he couldn't alter his way of functioning.
The Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau on Monday filed a chargesheet against suspended judge T Pattabhirama Rao and seven others, including two Karnataka members of legislative Assembly, in the cash-for-bail case involving former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.
The Karnataka government has suspended 40 officials and staff and issued show-cause notices to 257 who have been named by Lokayukta reports in illegal mining in Karnataka, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said.
10 reasons why the Congress-JD-S government is on the brink of collapse.
Ignoring JD-S' request for support, the Congress did not withdraw its second candidate Khan from the fray and issued a whip to all its MLAs asking them to vote for the party's candidates.
The police which are probing the matter on Bommai's instruction had arrested B R Naidu, the former chief of Congress' Karnataka unit social media team, on Wednesday night from his residence.
Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has called for a meeting of his loyalists to review their decision on whether to topple the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Karnataka. The meeting -- slated to be held at his Dollar's Colony residence in Bangalore at 10.30 am on Saturday -- will have 30 Bharatiya Janata Party Members of Legislative Assembly and seven ministers attending it.
The party has not applied the "one-family, one-ticket" formula for the Karnataka polls which it followed in the Punjab polls held last year.
Housing Minister M T B Nagaraj and K Sudhakar handed over their resignations at the Speaker's chamber in Vidhana Soudha.
The legislature reiterated the state's stand that the issue is a settled one, and not an inch of land will be given to the neighbouring State.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Karnataka government's move to send nearly 100 Members of Legislative Assembly abroad on a 'study tour' has come under flak from B S Yeddyurappa, who demanded that the programme be cancelled in view of severe drought conditions prevailing in large parts of the state.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Loyalists of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa have made another attempt to resign from the Bharatiya Janata Party unit in the state. This time, they have emailed their resignations to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Fourteen BJP legislators had made an attempt to put in their papers on Wednesday but failed to do so as the Speaker was not available.
Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Friday said that the Congress government will try to implement the five poll guarantees as soon as possible, but there will be certain 'rules and regulations'.
Somshekhar Reddy, Karnataka Member of Legislative Assembly from Bellary, has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the cash-for-bail scam. According to the other arrested accused in the case, it was Reddy who passed on the money which was used to bribe those judges who eventually granted bail to his brother Janardhan Reddy, in a case connected to illegal mining.
In true Karnataka political style, which cuts across parties and loyalties, any reinstatement of Yeddiyurappa, even with adequate legislative majority, could trigger rebellion from within, which could embarrass the Modi-Shah duo than any other development elsewhere in the country, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
While former minister and MLA Aravind Limbavali's wife Manjula Arvind Limbavali has got the ticket for the Mahadevapura constituency, the party has fielded Katta Jagadish, son of former minister Katta Subramanya Naidu from Hebbal.
The state is mainly witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular).
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